Kamala Harris Grandmother Was A Plantation Slave Owner Founder of Brownstown Jamaica
As the presidential buzz continues to grow around the possible candidacy of California Senator Kamala Harris, interest is also growing around her little-known Jamaican heritage. Harris has been quoted as saying she is not ruling out a bid for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election but as her stocks continue to rise the last Washington Post quarterly ranking of July 10, saw her being elevated from #4 to #3 among the possible contenders. The prospect of a woman of Jamaican heritage occupying the White House must lead a curious nation to ask: how much of an influence did her early upbringing by her Jamaican father have on the formation of her character and current world view? In this open and revealing article Donald Harris reflects on the ‘Jamaicanness’ of his daughter Kamala.
My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (née Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town) and to my maternal grandmother Miss Iris (née Iris Finegan, farmer and educator, from Aenon Town and Inverness, ancestry unknown to me). The Harris name comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph Alexander Harris, land-owner and agricultural ‘produce’ exporter (mostly pimento or all-spice), who died in 1939 one year after I was born and is buried in the church yard of the magnificent Anglican Church which Hamilton Brown built in Brown’s Town (and where, as a child, I learned the catechism, was baptized and confirmed, and served as an acolyte).
https://www.jamaicaglobalonline.com/kamala-harris-jamaican-heritage/